I think everyone will sharpen their knives and go after the receiving corps this week, and it is well deserved. My film review will be focusing on some other things (as the receiver topic will be well discussed) but there is one thing that I picked up on watching the film that is absolutely unacceptable and won't be talked about around the watercooler. Attention to detail about alignment.
Case in point. In the 3rd quarter with the game still potentially in reach, we have a second and nine. The Hokies throw a deep ball and draw an apparent pass interference call. But, alas! The official indicates that the Hokies have an ineligible receiver down field. Was he correct?
NINE. Not eight. NINE men on the line of scrimmage. That means two of the receivers have not paid a bit of attention to their alignment and have either covered themselves (if the interior guys aligned wrong) or covered their teammates (if the outside guys should have been flexed back. This is a pee-wee football mental error, and it could have potentially cost the Hokies a big play.
Aaron Moorehead has a ton of work to do this week, and the receiver corps needs to take a good look in the mirror. Drops, alignment issues, and frankly, a lot of very tentative "tip toe through the daisies" kind of plays.
Comments
Did I say the only time?
Please note DJ Coles. This is a 5th year senior, lined up at the bottom of the screen.
00:16:29–00:16:32
I am not sure what he was waiting on to get set, and then when he does get set (after the snap) he is almost a half yard past the line of scrimmage. I am not sure where DJ's head was at in this game, but that is abysmal from a true freshman, much less a fifth year senior.
Watching the replay. Looked like Logans got better pocket awareness then he did last year.
Need to improve clock management, IMO. I think he had two delay of the game or maybe just 1 and had to burn a timeout early.
Can you remember a season opener in the last 10 years when we haven't gotten two or more delay of game penalties?
No. I cannot. I know there was two on punt and I was practically screaming for them to stop making all these audibles, just line up and kick the damn ball. But, I know that whoever is responsible for calling out the adjustment needs to watch the clock.
I am encouraged, though, that Beamer is serious about putting the best players on special team. That is welcomed. What I am more worried, though, is boneheaded penalties like running into the kicker that extends drive, a la Boise State game (ugh).
On that note, did anyone else laugh when the ref announced that the kicker went down on his own? I personally think that's worth a 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct, but it was still awesome to hear the ref call him out like that.
I agree with this. If you can get a 5 or 15 yarder on running/roughing the kicker, kickers should be just as guilty of faking.
I would love to hear that call. "Flopping, on the kicking team, number X." Of course, that begs the question - what terrible bad-white-men-dancing-on-the-field move would represent flopping?
If it's bad enough that the ref calls you out on it, you get flagged.
I was glad they did because it is ridiculous when kickers get that call when barely being touched or not touched at all...I liked this B1G crew
I think when you put the more experienced players in, you will see less bone-headed mistakes. Freshman want to prove themselves and they take some risks. During the bama game, Kyle did exactly what he was supposed to do, he ran to block, then dove under the punter. The punter did a great acting job on that play.
Thats pretty bad...there was a breakdown on 24/7 of every pass Logan threw and there were about 11 drops and 2 or 3 passes thrown away...Also, after watching the game again...pass pro was not as good as I initially thought
I am going to focus on run blocking in my first film review. There were a couple of breakdowns in pass protection (the 3rd and 1 rollout was a pretty ugly miscue by Andrew Miller, and McLaughlin had a couple of moments where he was outmatched off the edge.)
Ultimately, McLaughlin is going to be an outstanding offensive lineman. He had a good game, especially for a true freshman starter. But, I really think long term he will be better suited for right tackle. His feet are just a tad slow and he overcompensates by opening up too much to the outside, leaving him vulnerable to a rip move or a straight bull rush.
Outstanding, thanks French! Oh yeah and you were right about Edmunds...Do you still think he needed a redshirt year? As bad as last year was, it probably would have been wasted anyway
I look at like this...We didnt waste him last year
So does every WR have the responsibility to check how many are already lined up on the line of scrimmage? So if the TE accidentally lines up on the line, a WR (probably the slot?) should back off the line? How far off do you have to be in order to avoid that penalty? Sorry, lots of questions popped into my head!
Each player has a specific assignment and alignment per play. Truly, it is the responsibility of each position to know where they should start and where they should end up each play. That being said, if a receiver is lined up wide, he first looks down towards the ball, then at the line judge to confirm whether he is on or off. If he knows he is supposed to be on, but he sees his tight end already tucked up next to the tackle, then he should have the smarts to back off the line. If you have two receivers on one side, typically, one should be on, the other off. French is correct in saying they teach this at a very early level--a mistake that should not be made. I dont even know where to begin if I am Moorehead trying to correct these issues. I really think we should play and see both Standford and Meyers more, the other two less. DJ's play on Saturday feels eerily similar to that of Marcus last year.
Nice post.
However, Sam Rogers might just come after you for putting a d in Stanford.
We all just better cool it with this "d" stuff. Team's got enough d as it is.
Good stuff, thanks zoom!
Absolutely inexcusable.
However, those are fixable errors that Moorehead vowed he will work on. I am truly happy to have someone like Moorehead with professional attention to details. So glad that Pep recommended him to Beamer who hired him.
I tell my Pop Warner players, If you dont give your best effort on every play, then we will find someone who will. Give me a player with heart and desire over one with just talent every day. Stanford, Meyers, and Caleb all need to be given nods. A clear message needs to be sent.
Coles and Knowles played much more poorly than they have before. In a weird way, that makes me feel better. Just a bad game by our two best receivers.
It is worth noting that both of these players have been complementary pieces before. They need to ready themselves for starter reps and personnel assignments.
Thank you! Yes our receivers were god awful Saturday, but Demitri and DJ have both proven themselves enough in my book to start (Demitri did more last year than the GT catch believe it or not, and DJ is still DJ). I may be irrationally optimistic, but I bet Moorehead fixes this issue quick. You know is fired up, and this week will be hell for those two. I also hope that these were just individual bad games that won't continue all season (Demitri had more drops last night than he did all last season, and this was DJ's first game in a year). Like it or not, we don't have the depth at receiver to give up on either of these guys.
That was excellent real-time (or psuedo real-time, I guess. It was after the commercial break) analysis.
FYI, Trey Edmunds spinning CJ Mosely onto the ground happens at 16:58 - 17:05
And it will make me happy for another 3 years at least.
Edmunds made quite possibly the best LB in the country look like a lost freshman with that move. Everyone was right, Edmunds is and will be a BEAST!
There was some cases where Thomas could have tucked (trucked) it and ran. I wish he would have done that more, but it comes down to decision making.
I'm ok with the throwaways. WAAAY too often in years past have I seen VT QBs (even senior Tyrod), try to run and end up running out of bounds behind the LOS. 2nd and 10 > 2nd and 11/12 every single time. Risk outweighs reward on most of those scrambles, IMO, and I'm willing to bet that's how Lefty has coached LT3.
Loeffler hated how much Logan had to tuck and run last year. It can be effective, but I think Loeffler is also very worried about injury if our attitude is just, "forget it, he'll make it happen by barreling into guys."
Exactly. A 1-2 yard gain doesn't do much for us if Logan gets seriously hurt.
One semi-shocking moment I saw was when Logan took off on a sweep (third qtr., I think) got outside made a few yards and slid. Definitely a Loeffler taught moment, imo.
Ah yes, the "Brady Slide!"
Well, when you've already gotten well past the first down, lowering the shoulder on a safety with the rest of the defense close behind doesn't do ya much good. Glad to see LT3 making a good decision there.
You must had forgotten the Miami game last November. Thomas did lot of sliding in that game after picking up first downs.
I'm delighted he was sacked only once the whole game. That shows improved decision-making.
Not really about the receivers but...every time I watch that Kyle Fuller pass breakup (7:46 on the video) I can't help thinking about just how great he's going to be this season.
That play was an absolute clinic! Perfect positioning. Made sure to not interfere (or have his hand in position the red could consider it). Just beautiful. I replayed it about 20 times and was as impressed the last time as I was the first. Kid has skills!
I really hope that Moorehead sends a message to these guys to man up and run the correct routes.
I just spent way too much time looking at every pass play from the game on Dozer's video, by my count the incompletions break down as follows:
10.5 on Receivers:
6.5 Incompletions on bad throws from Logan
2 Throwaways
1 Incompletion from a near sack: Logan was hit mid throw on a check down to Edmunds
1 that I wasn't sure about from the video, 1st pass of game, either a drop by Coles or knocked away by LB in coverage.
All 26 passes are listed below along with where in the video they are, any disagreements on which are/aren't drops.
Pass # --Timestamp --Player Targeted --Result
1 --0:19-0:25 --18 - Coles --Batted away by LB or Dropped by reciever?
2 --1:08-1:15 --80 - Knowles --Caught in flat, 1 yd past LoS, looses 1 yd before contact, no net gain
3 --1:34-1:42 --18 - Coles --Caught 34 yd Gain
4 --1:43-1:52 --81 - Perez-Means --Thrown Away under pressure in Perez Means Direction
5 --1:52-1:59 --80 - Knowles --Dropped by receiver
6 --1:59-2:06 --80 - Knowles --Dropped by receiver after taking big hit
7 --3:26-3:32 --80 - Knowles --Dropped by receiver, nearest defender 4 yards behind
8 --6:43-6:52 --18 Coles --Receiver quits on route, Pick 6
9 --7:04-7:05 --80 - Knowles --Not on Dozers video, its the play where Knowles had a step on the defender and Logan overthrows him
10 --7:12-7:18 --18 Coles --Dropped-Pass is low but catchable
11 --8:20-8:25 --18 Coles --Overthrown on 3rd and 1 roll out.
12 --9:13-9:21 --14 Edmunds --Complete for 6 yd gain, ball thrown high, good job going up for catch
13 --9:57-10:04 --80 - Knowles --Corner Route underthrown, Knowles does good job preventing Interception.
14 --10:58-11:06 --N/A --Thrown away out of bounds on roll out, Tuck and Run better option?
15 --13:17-13:22 --Not sure of target --Thrown into ground
16 --14:02-14:08 --14 Edmunds --Nearly sacked thrown while falling, throw hits ground 2 yds in front of Edmunds.
17 --14:08-14:15 --80 - Knowles --Dropped, slightly underthrown, Knowles has to slow down to catch ball, hits Knowles in facemask, coverage is tight but should be caught.
18 --15:09-15:24 --16 - Parker -- Receiver fell down, tangled up with defender. Also Ineligible Receiver downfield.
19 --16:51-16:57 --5 - Stanford --Caught for 16 yd gain
20 --17:11-17:16 --80 - Knowles --Caught for 3 yd gain
21 --17:17-17:26 --80 - Knowles --Overthrown deep ball, defender had a step on Knowles
22 --17:31-17:36 --5 Stanford --Pass too high because of LB in passing lane
23 --18:41-18:47 --18 Coles --Dropped, heard footsteps?
24 --18:48-18:52 --18 Coles --Dropped, hit as soon as ball gets there, should be caught.
25 --18:52-19:02 --14 Edmunds --Dropped by receiver
26 --19:55-20:02 --80 - Knowles --Dropped by receiver
Things can only go up for the receivers. They will get there. It was obvious DJ didnt have his head in the game on the first play. It was wide open briefly and he failed to go get up the field. Like he had no idea what to do.
Replaying the game over and hearing the whining about Logan this is how I felt: He isnt going to be great but if he keeps progressing like he is...he will be solidly good QB if we can get people to catch the ball.
Think about it this way: If we cloned AJ McCarron and he played for our team Sat night would we have won? I dont think so. Would have been closer but still Bama wins.
As far as S.L. playcalling and game-plan it made sense to me. In hindsight, sure there were 3 to 5 play call that you could be critical of but everything seemed to follow logic. You can find many calls you dont like with any team in any game. This was a far cry from the whole game idiotic playcalling of the past.